Finding Your Fiona

I was contacted by David, a man who had purchased a ‘done for you’ hair loss vitamin supplement business.

He’d spent $30,000 and received a website, inventory, some social media profiles, and not much else.

He’d been sold on it being an already profitable business.

David explained that whilst sales had been promised, he’d seen very little and was struggling to pay the overheads such as inventory storage fees with the shipping partner, website hosting, emailer system and so on.

He said he’d recently invested a few more thousand dollars in overhauling the website and even paid models to hold up the bottle for photographs he had dotted around the website.

He asked if I could help, and I obliged.

I asked him to provide me his website URL. He explained he had spoken with business minds and other consultants, and yet despite having a reasonable amount of daily traffic to the site, he simply wasn’t making sales.

Leave it with me I said and I punched his website address into my browser.

It took me all of 5 seconds to see where he had gone wrong. Or at least the person who sold him the business had gone wrong.

There’s always a reason someone is selling a ‘profitable business’ right?!

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I was blunt in my response…

‘David… what are you selling?’

‘Hair loss vitamins’

‘OK, and who buys hair vitamins?’

‘Errr… Ladies I guess?’

‘Correct, but what type of ladies? Can you be more specific?’

He wasn’t sure.

Now whilst I may not have a pair of boobs myself, I’m pretty certain that the majority of woman searching for hair loss vitamins are very likely to be going through the menopause or will be postmenopausal/aging.

Of course, there are some younger women and even teens suffering from hair loss issues and receding hairlines, but I suspect for the most part, these ladies are already being served by doctors and are taking drugs for the issue.

In my mind, the majority of women searching for hair loss vitamins to slow or combat hair loss are likely to be 40 years old, and more likely 50 years plus.

Yet the homepage alone on David’s website featured 9 models holding up the bottles (posing as users of the product), and not one of them was over the age of 25.

It was blindingly obvious to me that he’d gone to a freelancer/influencer website and essentially paid very young models to appear as satisfied customers.

It was likely very clear to the average site visitor too.

On top of that, the branding was bright pink with love hearts used as bullet points, and the sort of fluffy language that could only be written by a younger copywriter who him/herself had never experienced hair loss…

‘Add bounce and feel amazing’

‘Add volume and radiate beauty’

‘Look and feel your best every day’…

Fluff… No solution, no benefits, and no science to back up the vague claims.

Even his bottle and company logo looked tacky in bright shocking pink.

There was a total mismatch between the message, look, and the vibe his site was putting out and the women who would benefit the most from his product.

I gave him a to-do list of things that would positively affect his website’s conversion rate:

1. He needed to have a designer revamp his bottle label. Less tack and more credibility.
2. He was to get a real SALES copy writer to dive a little into the science behind the ingredients in the supplement’s formula. Someone who could identify the average customer’s needs and answer them with verifiable proof.
3. He needed to lose the images of the 20-year-olds and replace them with pictures of woman who were over the age of 40 – woman who looked like his average site visitor.

I advised him to step into the shoes of a woman who was suffering hair loss issues and identify what her problems were. Then answer them by explaining how the product could overcome them.

Don’t focus on the hair, but understand the real problem the woman reading his website was struggling with…

‘David… You’re not selling hair vitamins. You’re selling self-respect and esteem. You’re selling confidence. You’re selling dating and the potential to meet a life partner. You’re selling a smile upon the face of any woman looking in the mirror.’

He seemed to get it, but I didn’t feel confident he’d be able to go it alone when it came to matching his message to his market.

I didn’t feel he was truly able to mentally step into the shoes of his perfect average client and provide the answers to the questions she had, match his message and marketing to her needs and wants, and rebrand his business so that it truly resonated and had her making that leap of faith to not just become a customer – but stay a customer.

—

‘David, I’ve had an idea… Give me a minute.’

I fired up my go to stock photo website and punched in the following:

‘Silver haired middled aged woman’

The website threw up a ton of images of women who were mostly around the age of 50, all with great hair…

Picture 1 – No.

Picture 2 – No.

Picture 3… YES! And there she was… ‘Fiona’.

I clicked to enlarge the photo and I instantly knew she was perfect.

SHE was the lady that should she be searching Google for ‘hair loss vitamins’ and happened upon a well-crafted hair loss supplement website – would likely buy.

She was curvy and clearly not a fitness model, yet you could tell she would have been very beautiful in her youth.

She was around 55 years old and she had great silver hair – but it lacked volume it likely once had and she also had a slightly receding hairline.

But it was very clear she took care of herself and her appearance and wasn’t ready to give in to old age yet.  

I downloaded the image and sent it to David.

‘David, meet Fiona.’

I explained to him that Fiona was his perfect average customer and I wanted him to commit to two things…

1. Print out her image and put her on his wall right above his work computer. Better yet, print her out and put her in a picture frame on his desk.
2. He was to never write another piece of copy, run another Ad, or make a single change to his website until he first looked at her picture.  

If he was to do anything to his business, he was to first look her in the eyes for at least 30 seconds and THEN write his Ad, craft his sales copy, or add images to his website… AS IF HE WAS TALKING DIRECTLY TO HER.

 Thankfully he immediately got it.

‘Wow. My branding is quite immature, isn’t it?’ he asked…

‘It likely is, now you finally understand who you are talking and selling to’ I replied.

—

Two weeks later and I got a message from David.

‘I’ve had a designer redesign the label, I’ve removed the young models and replaced them with beautiful confident older ladies I think my perfect average client would be inspired by, and I’ve reworded the site answering the questions I think my customers want to know… And Mark, I think Fiona would approve!’

One month later and David’s business was booming.

He’d not had time to work on increasing the traffic – but the website was converting and he was finally making money… And a lot of it!

My advice to you is the same as my advice to David:

1. Know who you are talking to and speak in their language – both in fonts, colors, images, and words. Take into account their age, gender, goals, and even intellect if applicable.
2. Adorn your website with pictures of people who exude the sort of looks, energy, and confidence your ‘Fiona’ dreams to have. BUT make them relatable.
3. Write copy that convinces your site visitor that your product will provide the solution to the problem she/he is looking to solve, so your product is the sort of product your ‘Fiona’ would want to buy.

Now before you do anything else to your business, go to a stock photo site or Google images and find your Fiona – and let her steer your decisions as you shape your supplement business.